Page 77 of Close Up

Nick rolled onto his side and looked at her. A low-grade fever burned in his eyes.

“Money isn’t the only motive for murder,” he said. “The desire for revenge is an acid that destroys everything it touches.”

“We can’t just keep adding names to your suspect list.”

“You’re right.” Nick eased the covers aside and sat up on the edge of the bed. “It’s time to edit our list.”

“How?”

“By going back to the issue that has been bothering us from the start.”

“What is that?”

“The fact that an unknown photographer who is trying to make her mark in the art world was the target of not just one but two attacks within the span of slightly less than a month.”

Vivian smiled at the energy around him. “Do you always go right back to work after making love?”

She winced at her own words.Should have said, Do you always go right back to work after going to bed with someone?She shouldn’t have used the wordlove.

But Nick was apparently too preoccupied with his thoughts to pay attention to nuances. He got to his feet and went to the door. He paused to look back at her.

“No,” he said. “Usually I just go to sleep afterward. Something about being with you seems to have cleared my head.”

He was serious.

Well, at least she was proving to be useful, she thought.

Chapter 38

They got a couple of hours of sleep before room service delivered breakfast. They ate the grapefruit, eggs, and toast at the small table on the patio. Rex wolfed down the steak and eggs the kitchen had sent to the villa in a large bowl.

Nick discovered that he was ravenous. It was not an unusual state of affairs. He was always hungry when he started making progress on a case.

Vivian picked up the silver pot and poured two cups of coffee. Nick polished off the last slice of toast, sat back, and picked up his notebook.

“All right, here’s what we’ve got,” he said. “Our list of suspects includes Hamilton Merrick, Lyra’s fiancé. His motive is the Brazier family fortune.”

“Hamilton no longer has a motive,” Vivian pointed out. “He’s now an ex-fiancé.”

Nick looked up from his notes. “That doesn’t mean he can or will call off the assassin. He may think he can convince Lyra to forgive him.Or he may simply want revenge now. It’s also quite possible that he has no way to contact the killer to stop the process.”

“Okay, he stays on your list but I still can’t imagine him commissioning a murder.”

“In that same category, we also have Winston Bancroft. Motive: revenge.” Nick tapped the pencil against the notebook. “They say that revenge is a dish that is best served cold but the truth is, people usually prefer to serve it blazing hot.”

“I think Winston would go the blazing-hot route. I told you, he’s inclined toward heavy drama. I can’t see him waiting this long to exact revenge. What’s more, if you think about it, he’s already been avenged. He’s the one who has work hanging in prestigious galleries, not me.”

“If you’re reading him right—”

“Pretty sure I am.”

“It means he goes to the bottom of the list.” Nick put a check mark beside Bancroft’s name. “I will also admit I’m inclined to agree with you about Hamilton Merrick. Not because he isn’t the type to hire a killer but because it would have made more sense for him to wait until he was safely married to Lyra before he got rid of you.”

“And why would he take the risk of having an affair with one of Lyra’s friends before the wedding? He had to know that if Lyra found out she would end the engagement. In fact, given what I know about Hamilton, I wouldn’t be surprised if he unconsciously wanted to be discovered in bed with Lyra’s friend. It got him out of a marriage he probably does not want.”

Nick studied his notes again. “People rarely use a lot of logic or common sense when they indulge in an affair.”

There was an acute silence from the other side of the table. Nick looked up. Vivian was very busy feeding bacon to Rex under the table. It occurred to him she was probably thinking about their own newly minted affair and the possibility that logic and common sense had not been involved.

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